Have you been searching the Internet in hopes of finding some type of Remote Customer Service Opportunity that you can conduct from home? Thousands of productive people have now turned to the Internet full time looking for one or two jobs that they can work from their homes due to the economic crisis. Yes there are Remote Opportunities available and they are not Scam Projects or Companies. Do you know the difference between being an Independent Contractor from an Employee? This seems to confuse a lot of people and it is one of the considerations that you must take into account when you opt to work from home.
Independent Contractor Companies: You are basically responsible for calculating your own taxes at the end of the year. While they might retain you for the shift that you request in the beginning around 3-4 months into some contracts they will inform you that there is a shift bid in force. What is a "Shift Bid?", you will have to work through 100s of possible shifts available labeling which is your preferred shift request and hope that you get it. The good thing about this is that if you suddenly end up with a shift that you do not like or can not work you can place that on a board to see if you can swamp with some one else who did not get the shift they also desired. One thing to note about Independent Contractual work is that if the Client decides to cancel their contract or lessen the number of agents that they require to maintain an assignment you could find yourself out of work unless you are able and willing to change your hours of availability
Employee: There are also Remote Customer Service companies that will handle the responsibilities of taking out your taxes for you. If the assignment is discontinued they will maintain their associates and you will just work on another Clients contract again hopefully it might be along the hours that you are available to work.
Usually Remote Customer Service work will start out at $7.50 to $12.00 per hour depending upon the assignment. Be aware of companies that wish to pay you per talk time or per calls. You need to ensure that you are applying with a company that will pay you hourly. Remote work is not always interesting or exciting so depending upon what you are looking for make sure that you understand the criteria of the work involved. If you have no problems reading a set script that you must "strictly" adhere to then you will find numerous companies available to you. I am not going into what they all require you can research that for yourself. Just know that just about every Remote Customer Service assignment will require you to have a specialized form of phone headsets. Some will have a special work disc that they will provide you with, while other companies will have you download their workstation platform via the Internet. Do they pay you for training? Some will others will not. Some training will last only one or two days for a couple of hours while other companies will train you for two weeks before you are allowed to work the Clients contracted assignment. Your time is important and valuable so personally I would not apply to any company that does not pay me for my time and yes that includes my training time as well.
What industries do most remote customer service reps from home participate with? Telecommunications, Computer Maintenance Issues, Sales {via Inbound or outbound calls}, Cold Calling, Appointment Setters etc. Hopefully this has answered some of those questions that had you frozen in place trying to decide whether or not this might be the right type of job opportunity for you. As with anything please do your Due Diligence.